'Come, let's go. I want to show something to you', he said, his voice husky with desire.
She did not trust her voice, so, she nodded and went with him, to a place where the water was falling of a high wall. It was a waterfall.
She scream in delight and he smiled. They sat on the rock, holding hands and appreciating the work of nature.
'I come here, whenever I need quiet and peace. When I am troubled and even when I am happy. It is my secret place. I just wanted to share it with you'.
Violet held his hands and smiled her thanks. 'I shall come here too, whenever I am happy or sad'.
They smiled at each other and looked at the beauty of the fall in companionable silence.
Then Violet noticed that Damien was deep in thought.
'Is something wrong? Are you okay?' she asked anxiously.
'Violet, I had wanted to ask you a question but I do not know if this is the right time'.
'Ask away. You will not know if it's the right time and neither can you get the answer to your question unless you ask'.
'Tell me about Robert', he asked gently.
It was so unexpected that Violet snatched her hands away from his and stood up shaking violently.
Damien got up and went to her. He pulled her into his arms. 'You do not have to say anything if you not want to', he said, 'You s reamed his name that night of the incident with Clark and I have wanted to know what he did to you to have made you go off like that into a trance'.
She sighed. And sat down once again on the rock.
'It happened a long time ago', she started. 'I was fifteen and there were some young officers who had just come into the officers' mess. Since my father was one of the senior officers, they often visited him at home and ran errands for him', she paused and looked into the distance.
'One of them was calked Robert and he was one of those who were closer to my age than the others', she continued with a far away look in her voice and her voice remote. 'He started coming close to me. I was flattered by his attentions and we became very friendly. He told me that he loved me and I told him I did too, the excitement I felt whenever I was around him was definitely love, I thought.
'We stole kisses and stayed together planning our future and how we wanted our home to be when we got married and how many children we wanted to have, how big a family we would have and all that.
' I was going to finish college and he was going to save enough to make sure we never lacked.
'One day, my father was busy with some officers and he asked me to come with him, I did not because I felt my father would need me but Robert insisted, saying that what he needed to show me was not going to take long and that we would soon be back especially since we would go on his bike.
' I went with him on his bike and we got to a bushy path. We had been there with my father and some officers in search of something previously. But he did not stop there but took me deeper into the woods and into something that looked like a tunnel.
'I asked where we were going and that I was getting scared but he just dragged me along and soon he kissed me. But the kiss was no longer as chaste as the ones we had been sharing previously. It was deeper and more demanding and as he did so, he told me how much he loved me. I endured it though I did not feel any excitement. Then his hands started fumbling with my buttons of my shirt and that was when alarm bells started going off in my head.
'After all, we are going to get married, why are you resisting? I shall not hurt you but make sure that you enjoy it immensely', he said when I tried pushing him off.
'No, I do not want to. Please let's stop', I pleaded. But he gave no heed to my words, instead it enraged him further and he started handling me roughly, saying, ' You want it. You know you want it. You have been enjoying my kisses all these while and I have seen it in your eyes that you needed more and that is why I brought you here to fulfill your desires. So do not pretend with me now. Just come into my arms willingly and let me make you feel like a woman or I shall take it by force and that will teach you to be a tease'.
'All I said to make him realise that I had not been teasing him at lease not knowingly, fell on deaf ears. He was convinced or had convinced himself that I wanted to be intimate with him or had been teasing him intentionally and he would not stop till he thought me never to be a tease and I asked him if this was how he treated someone he claimed he loved and wanted to marry and he told me that he never loved me nor was he ready to tie himself to any girl least of all a tease like me.
'He tore my clothes and grabbed my breasts, pushed me to the floor and I screamed. He laughed telling me no one could come to my rescue here and that afterwards, I would be too ashamed of being ruined that I would not tell anyone about it.
'He fell on me and struggled to unzip his trousers with one hand, while pinning me down with his body and the other hand. I screamed and screamed but knew it was useless. He had taken me far into the woods away from any form of human life and I had been foolish enough to follow him because of my blind trust in him.
'All of a sudden, hands pulled him off me but I continued screaming. Who knew if it was some of his friends who had come to also partake of the free meal.
I opened my eyes to run away when I heard sounds of beating, thinking that while they fought I could run to safety, thanking God that he had not gone farther than tearing my clothes but I saw it was Mr. Hermione, you know him, my father's friend.
'He beat Robert mercilessly and that was how I was rescued. He took me through a back road to his house where I had a change of clothes given me by his sympathetic wife before he took me home.
'My father wanted to report him to their superiors but Mr. Hermione again intervened, not because Robert had begged for pardon but because Hermione advised my dad against it telling him that my reputation would be at stake and people would think that he actually raped me and others would wonder how far he went with me but it was going to spoil my chances of getting married.
'I went to see my father one day and found he and his friends - about ten of them - looking at me and whistling , then they started laughing and I knew that he had told them all that happened between us. I heard him further lie that he actually had his way with me, and that I had enjoyed it alot and had screamed for more. And I heard them say that they thought I was a decent girl but then you couldn't judge a book by its cover. Now they knew it was merely all a pretense. I could not stop my tears. It was too incredible and as I ran into my father's office, they burst into loud laughter.
'I do not know how my father did it but before such a rumour could spread, Robert was transfered to another mess along with the officers closest to him'.